Russia plans 30% defence spending hike in 2025

MOSCOW:

Russia plans to hike its defence spending by about 30 percent next year as it diverts more resources to fund its offensive in Ukraine, draft budget plans published on Monday showed.

Moscow has already ramped up its military spending to levels not seen since the Soviet Union era, as it pumps out missiles and drones to fire on Ukraine and pays lucrative salaries to its hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines.

The latest planned increase in spending will take Russia's defence budget to 13.5 trillion rubles ($145 billion) in 2025, a document published on the parliamentary website showed.

That figure does not include some other resources being directed to the military campaign, such as spending that Russia labels as "domestic security" and some outlays classified as top secret.

Combined spending on defence and security will account for around 40 percent of Russia's total government spending, seen at 41.5 trillion rubles in 2025.

Before sending the draft budget to Russia's parliament, Moscow trumpeted an increase in investment and social welfare alongside higher military outlays.

The "top priority" of the budget is "social support for citizens", Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a televised government meeting last Tuesday.

"The second is the provision of expenditures on defence and security, providing the resources for the special military operation and support for families of those participating in the special military operation," he added, using Russia's official language for its Ukraine offensive.

But the figures suggest that military spending has crowded out spending on other areas of the economy.

Planned spending on "national defence" is more than twice that allocated to areas Moscow labels as "social policy".